Pointers

All questions and paradoxes are dissolved with Knowledge.


*****


You can come to a direct knowing of what you are by either recognizing this subtle yet penetrating presence of awareness that is squarely before you, or by you thoroughly and suddenly understanding that the "I," "me," and even sentience (your knowing that you exist) has to arise in something that is already present.


*****


In progressive paths, you are trying to utilize the "I" (a frequent-yet-fleeting appearance in awareness) to reach awareness. The foolishness of such an endeavor should be immediately evident.


*****


God is not something to be feared or periodically "communed" with. God is always with you and as you. He/She/It is that indescribable tranquility and vastness that remains after seeing through the falseness of self-centered concepts. And this isn't a case of your having to take various issues--love, lust, suffering, envy, faith, the mind, etc,--and examine them separately in some structured and in-depth manner. That's a concept ("me") attempting to examine another concept. Presence, however, dispels all illusions with wholeness and radiance.


*****


Awareness is prior to any thought, doubt, seeking, or spiritual exercise.


*****


There has never been any separation between you and presence. As you are reading these words right now, you are the very Truth that you are seeking. Ponder this over and over again, if you feel so inclined (and there must be a natural proclivity to do so; otherwise, it is purely a conceptual endeavor).


*****


Happiness isn't our inherent nature. Peace is.


*****


All journeys, however contemplative, take you in the wrong direction. Journeys are a pull for you because they promise drama, suspense, romance, and difficulties (to be bravely surmounted). You cannot make a journey without taking your "self" alone. And this imagined "me" is what keeps all of your illusions alive. Before taking any step in any direction, sit down and reflect upon what it is that is currently within you--but is not a thought, a sensation, or an emotion.


*****


You can't come to this understanding through stages. Neither are there any "gradual dissolutions," "speedy unfoldings," or "dark nights of the soul." Awakening, for the lack of a better word, is sudden and complete. And with it comes the knowledge that, in no uncertain terms, there is no separation between the perceiver and the perceived, and that all divisions in life are only apparent. In short, awareness has already "happened!" Take a non-moment to see what you are overlooking, and not what you need to strive for or attain.

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News & Info

"Your book is excellent!" -- Peter Kern, Gstaad, Switzerland

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

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Q&A: No Process

Question: Well, I'm continuing to struggle with all of this.

Rodney: Oh, please don't.

Q: I want to be earnest. I keep hearing how it's the best quality a seeker can have.

Rodney: Earnestness comes of its own. You have very little to do with it. You simply find that you are pulled into something--in this case nonduality--in a way that really can't be explained. There is no "push" to do it--but rather a pull from the thing itself, which, in this case, is nothing less than your innate and numinous Self. It is a "struggle" for you because you are trying to attain it, rather than to recognize or understand it. When you set out to attain somthing, there is not only the supposed distance to cover, but there is this fictitious "me" who is making the onerous journey.

Q: Right, and I can't attain something that I already am.

Rodney: Exactly. And I'm not saying that there is nothing to be done. For there is, but it is a simple understanding or apperceiving, that's all. And that needn't be a struggle at all. In fact, the more relaxed you are, the better.

Q: Is there any way to quicken this understanding?

Rodney: Well, you're still thinking in terms of an "I" being there, when there isn't. Actually, it is there, but it is only temporary. And anything that's occasional cannot be your fundamental reality.

Q: Oh, jeeze. I was going about it wrong again!

Rodney: Don't see it in terms of "right" and "wrong." Those words only attract conceptual flotsam that perpetually clouds the issue of pristine seeing. Again, you are already that which you are seeking. Awareness is directly before you right now, as you are reading these words. What could be quicker than that? It's yours for the having, or rather for the seeing or understanding. And that could happen at the very end of this very sentence...Or it could occur next week as you are having a cup of tea or coffee, or standing in front of your bathroom mirror as you are washing your hands at the sink.

Q: Or when stretched out on a green, second-hand sofa. :)

Rodney: Particularly when stretched out on a green sofa! And it would help, certainly, to have one of John Wheeler's books in your hands.

Q: I continue to read everything by everybody. And I've ordered your book to examine over the holidays. I'm even having that sucker FedExed!

Rodney: Thanks for the purchase! But remember, the book is pointing to you, to your own enduring presence. Also stay mindful of the fact that it isn't necessary to "read everything by everyone." Try focusing on the works and teachers with whom there is some kind of synchrony. And a clear indication of that harmony is that the teachers' words and books slow your conceptualizing down. You can't read or listen to them for any length without being paused by their content.

Q: Yeah, I understand exactly what you mean. Thanks for pointing that out.

Rodney: A final point about "quickening" the process: There is no process, and there is no one to "quicken" it. If I were to say to you that nonduality will help you to reach a clear understanding in, say, a month instead of five years or ten, I'd be giving credence to the belief that time is a factor in all of this. And that is most certainly not the case. In fact, nonduality, is one of the few teachings that goes out of its way to say that you are already That for which you are searching. So take a moment to recognize the splendor of your immediate Self. I say a "moment," but even that's too much. For truly, this seeing is timeless.

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News & Info

"Your book is excellent!" -- Peter Kern, Gstaad, Switzerland

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

-------

Pointers

From moment to moment, what is it about you that Does Not Change?


*****


Why get bent out of shape about duality? It is simply an appearance in Reality. Objects, lives, and occurences are manifestations, giving rise to the concepts of space and time. Beyond and within all of this is a timelessness that defies all description. And you are That! There is not the slightest separation between you and awareness. Ponder this fact throughout day and evening until you are suddenly clear on its magnificent reality.


*****


The mind is no distinct entity. Rather, it is a functioning that occurs within the brain. And that functioning includes thinking, feeling, intending, guessing, reasoning, and imagining.


*****


Consciousness, among other things, is the sense of existing and the sense of being present. There is an "I-am-ness" quality to consciousness that is not there with awareness. As a sentient being, you know that you exists, that you are sitting, right now, directly in front of your computer screen, as you peruse these sentences. But when you are awake to your actual nature, you not only know that you exist, but that you are Existence itself.


*****


Sentience/consciousness is an aspect of awareness that allows awareness to recognize itself. Pure presence, which you ultimately are, does not know that it exists.


*****


There is really no "relationship" between awareness and the universe. Such topics may (seemingly) make for entertaining debates with a lot of weighted--but not necessarily correct--conjecture. But the bottom line is that awareness and all worlds are one. No matter the distance, the dimension, or the condition, all is presence.


*****


Your unexamined, day-to-day living amounts to you taking yourself to be something that you are not.


*****


One of the great myths of enlightenment (which is another myth in itself) is that, upon its occurrence, all notions of dualism cease. There still may be the occasional--but brief--identification with thoughts and feelings. But essentially, your life becomes rather like a lucid dream: You know that you are dreaming, but you still react to the sudden and on-coming bus or return a beautiful person's smile and gaze. But all is seen for what it is--temporary appearances in the dream. So ultimately, nothing is held, only enjoyed, steered cleared of, or reacted to normally.

-------

News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

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Pointers

There is no road to freedom. Only Freedom itself.


*****


"Deepening" your practice accomplishes nothing. It is still a practice, and there is still this perceived-person doing it. Further, at no point do you "reach" presence because it can only be recognized or understood, not attained. In short, with methods and practices, you are looking away from the very thing that you are seeking.


*****


Without a single belief or a nanosecond of any spiritual activity, awareness gleams radiantly before you. And it isn't so much because you are distracted by life that you aren't seeing it (though that contention is not without merit). You just haven't properly paused and cognitized the presence of awareness within that pause. And such a recognition comes simply and easily.


*****


Awakening is a direct understanding of your true nature. And it occurs only once, and that's it. Game over.


*****


You are aware of these words as you are reading them on the computer screen. But what is it that is aware? Pause carefully here. What is it that is immediately present in addition to the words that you are reading right now? See that there is a subtle presence of sheerness and spaciousness that has absolutely always been within you and before you. It is the Mona Lisa-smile within the 3D picture. It may appear hidden at first. But once perceived, you realize how it was always in rapturous view.


*****


The "I" is a convenience, a practicality, an assumed reference point that allows us to function and communicate in our day-to-day life. Attempt neither to negate it or to give it overwhelming importance. For your fundamental nature can't be anything that comes and goes. And the "I" and the "me" do just that. You are the splendor and the spaciousness that forever remains.


*****

The serious exploration of such spiritual concepts such as "grasping," "egoic consciousness," and "energetic unfoldings" is such a waste of time and neurons. You are awareness itself, the presence in which all of the above notions come and go. Give you attention to that which Does Not Move. Then perhaps you, like the English poet Thomas Traherne, will finally feel "no dross or matter in my soul,/No brims or borders, such as in a bowl/We see. My essence was capacity."

-------

News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

-------

Q&A: An Obvious Unfolding

Question: Hello, Rodney. I've been subscribing to your blog for a year or so now, and I really enjoy your expression.

Rodney: Thank you!

Q: I would like to share with you what has been an obvious unfolding over these last few months and to ask if you have any pointers for me.

Rodney: Sure.

Q: For a while there has been a strong sense of things being different but of not really knowing what, and therefore, I am not quite able to put it into words.

Rodney: Yes, I'm quite familiar with what you are saying. But go ahead, let's hear your perspective on it.

Q: Slowly, over the last few weeks, it has dawned on me that all that arises here is not really being taken personally, for the most part....This [Name] personality comes up, with all the familiar thought patterns, reactions, tendencies, etc, but there's really no weight to them. They are just clouds passing over. There's nothing personal about any of it.

Rodney: That all sounds good. It appears as if you are beginning to see how the maneuverings of your body and mind are actually operating. And now, because you aren't giving your thoughts and personality patterns any significant import, you are feeling this new and perplexing calmness. In fact, it is so much of an oddity that, as you noted, you aren't quite able to "put it into words."

Q: Exactly. I'm noticing that it doesn't matter whether joy or anger or fear or sadness or whatever emotion arises. There is no resistance to it, nor is there a wanting it to stay or leave. It's as if the purity of the emotion is experienced for its own sake, because there's no "me" story attached to it.

Rodney: Again, that's commendable. It seems as if you are truly getting your nondual bearings. And even your details concerning it are clear and resonant. But--

Q: I intuitively knew that that "but" was coming.

Rodney: Which, once more, points to your own deepening understanding of the matter. All that's needed here is a more precise orientation on this. In your case, I would suggest that you continue to move your focus away from your experiences and feelings, including your ones of calmness and joy. For neither of those is your abiding state. Presence is. Often, seekers equate calmness or elation with awakening. But the central aspects of awareness are peace and spaciousness. It isn't your thoughts, feelings, ideas, bodily sensations, or the fact that you are conscious. So what is left? What is it that remains? What is it that is none of those things and that does not move? What is it, right now, that is immediately present and that you have never apprehended before?

Q: I don't know...But there is definitely a pause occurring, a kind of--

Rodney: Natural cessation.

Q: Yeah, that it's.

Rodney: Now see that within the pause there is an actual presence of awareness that is, at once, beginningless and undeniable. It may appear subtle, at first. But once recognized, there is nowhere where it is not. Its reach is limitless, and you are It.

Q: Then just stay focused on awareness, rather than on the experiences, correct?

Rodney: Just see or understand that you are presence, first and foremost. There is no extra entity having to remain "focused" on anything. Then you will quickly discern that this peace and clarity doesn't come and go. They remain because they are authentic aspects of your Beingness. You continue to experience emotions (thank goodness!), but they are seen for what they are: Fleeting arisings in your natural state.

Q: Points taken. Much love to you, Rodney.

Rodney: And to you, as well.

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News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

-------

Pointers

Earnestness means full-speed ahead to a destination at which you have already arrived.

*****

You are completely wasting your time if you are attempting to end or to dissolve the ego. That is simply one thought or concept trying to negate another. And the harder and longer you try, the more frustrating it will become. Is that any way to live your life, especially a so-called spiritual one?

*****

The issue with recognizing presence is not so much its subtlety (though that is certainly a factor), but its immediacy. Even before you begin to sit in meditation or pick up a spiritual book or read the next word in this very sentence, your natural state is brilliantly present.

*****

True awakening doesn't cause "disorientation." Indeed, you are suddenly centered in ways that you could not imagine. And it's little wonder, given that you are then centeredness, i.e., awareness proper. You were that even before your awakening, of course; but now you know it to be actual.

*****

There is no need for you to "reexamine certain patterns of thinking" or create some sort of "energetic unfolding." Those are conceptual activities that never go beyond their self-perpetuating little loops.

*****

Awakening ends the process of seeking. If you're still meditating and going to your teacher for counsel, you have not recognized anything.

*****

There is no separation between you and awareness. Ponder this, naturally and earnestly. Truly let it sink in. Again, there is absolutely no separation between you and awareness. If there is any grand or root precept to nonduality, that's the one. You are this knowing, unblinking spaciousness that is within and before your so-called body and mind. Indeed, there is no way out, really. So why not stop all the struggling and take a non-moment to recognize this unabashed refulgence that you have continually been overlooking?

-------

News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

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DVD Review

Closer Than Close: A Portrait of Seeking and Finding Our True Self (Poetry in Motion Films/80 minutes/$12.95 plus shipping) is an often moving and diverting work. Director Shawn Nevins captures two sets of seekers: A young one and a middle-aged one. No person, in either group, comes to any final understanding, though their earnestness is apparent.

The young group includes Heidi (a project leader for a Fortune 500 firm), Jeff (an After-School teacher), Scott (a Robotics Software engineer), and Nevins himself. Their questions and discussions--which occasionally go in the wrong direction--are, at least, honestly given.

The middle-age group is comprised of Mike Conners, an "Effortless Meditation" teacher from Cincinnati, Ohio; Art Ticknor, who recently wrote Solid Ground of Being: A Personal Story of the Impersonal; and Bart Marshall, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina and is the author of The Perennial Way, which contains six new translations of such spiritual classics as the Dhammapada, Heart Sutra, and Astavakra Gita.

Most of the seekers have had potent insights, and a few have actually stopped actively searching. Marshall, for instance, "became unfooled" and saw the falseness of many of his ideas and activities.

And Ticknor credits Richard Rose and his works for helping him to realize that "the answer is within," and not in practices. Indeed, Ticknor makes the point that, "It's seemingly silly to say that all you have to do is be what you are. Obviously, we always are what we are. But there is something in the way of recognizing that." Actually, there isn't. It is just a matter of seeing that not only is there nothing in the way, but that awareness is immediately before us. And we are That.

For information on ordering Closer Than Close (which is a fine title, by the way) go to: www.poetryinmotionfilms.com

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News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

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Pointers

Consciousness is local. Awareness is non-local.

*****

The "new awakening" is the old awakening. Or rather, there is nothing new or old about it. It is timeless and beyond all categorizations. Why some writers and gurus attempt to make this understanding into something contemporary is puzzling.

*****

There is no expansion of awareness when it is recognized. That is one of those ridiculous notions put forward by teachers who have no clarity about themselves or nonduality. When true understanding occurs, awareness is seen as expansiveness itself. It is a sheerness that is completely without bounds. Even to talk of expansion and expansiveness when it comes to presence is to short change it in an almost laughable way.

*****

Keep a dream journal if you enjoy your dreams. But such a journal won't help you to discern your natural state.

*****

More often than not, meditation doesn't "quiet the mind." Rather, it tends to make thoughts more apparent. Why? Because all of your attention is on stopping the thoughts. And when that happens, you are prone to be more aware when any thought appears. Even when you say that you are simply "witnessing" the thought or just letting thoughts "come and go," there is this imagined person there attempting to do either thing. So you still haven't gotten any closer to who and what you truly are. You can easily go a lifetime in this nonsensical loop, and--of course--most meditators do.

*****

Can love and devotion really be practiced? Or are they simply a spontaneous and unbridled outpouring from the heart? This is one of those spiritual questions for which the answer can be readily intuited, even if it cannot yet be clearly seen.

*****

Self-inquiry is beyond "being spiritual." It is a clear and earnest pondering or investigation into your present and actual nature. There is no journey to be made and no practices to be done--just a peace and spaciousness to be recognized. Right now, as you're reading these words, you are seeing from, through, and at the solution for which you are seeking. This is your miracle, your glory, your effluence of sacredness: You are the answer. Don't move from this, because THIS is what you are.

-------

News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

-------

Q&A: With Ease and Earnestness

Questioner: Hey Rodney. I was just reading your blog, and it really drew me in. In fact, I could not stop reading it!

Rodney: Thank you, but I hope you finally took some time off.

Q: I'm writing you. That's the time off!

Rodney: Well, have a nourishing glass of water or some green tea with that break, will you?

Q: Soon, I promise. I have a couple of questions for you first, if it's all right?

Rodney: Sure.

Q: Advaita means nondual or "not two." This oneness is the fundamental quality of everything. Everything is a part of and made of one nondual consciousness. Often the question arises, "If it is all one thing, why don't I experience it that way?" This is confusing oneness for the appearance of sameness. Things can appear different without being separate.

Rodney: Let us first be careful about our terms--though ultimately, they mean little at all. Consciousness--the sense that you are present--emanates from awareness. So it cannot possibly be considered nondual, in the sense that it is your fundamental nature. Consciousness is more of an aspect of awareness, just like any other manifestation in life.

Q: It's there, but it's not there.

Rodney: Oh, no. It's there! It's your state of awakeness. But it's a temporary arising within presence, which does not change.

Q: Oh, okay. I think I see what you mean.

Rodney: As for why you're not experiencing Self--well, you can't help but experience it. For it is what you are. You are merely overlooking that "oneness," which is immediately within and before you. Indeed, its very nearness appears to complicate one's perceiving it. But there is no real complication, of course--only an apparent one. For we simply aren't use to looking at something so close up. We only know thoughts and emotions and sensations. But what is it that is there before any of those things are there?

Q: I love that question. It really "stills" me. But then the mind starts up again.

Rodney: Don't worry about the mind. You are now taking note of a pause that you had not quite noticed before. You are delving into the issue of the space or spaciousness in which those things arise. You are angled towards the answer now, and the answer is you, awareness proper.

Q: So I can be complicating my seeing by trying too hard.

Rodney: Exactly. But your enthusiasm, which I sense as natural, is to be commended.

Q: That's good, because I'm going to take a deep breath and dive right back in.

Rodney: You don't come to this understanding through any straining or inordinate efforts. All of that is completely unnecessary. Just continue to explore this issue with ease and earnestness, and you will have the answer for yourself. And it will be a living and a vital answer, one of true peace and understanding.

Q: Thanks for the "living" and "vital" chat, Rodney. And thank you for your blog too!

-------

News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

-------

Pointers

The mind translates; awareness witnesses.


*****


You are not a paradigm. Your essence is transcendence and is completely beyond all philosophical constructs and theorizing.


*****


I love what Bodhiharma said about the nature of reality: "Vast emptiness, nothing holy, nothing sacred." And yet that spaciousness is the very epitome of sacredness.


*****


Despite some popular teachings to the contrary, awareness doesn't rise, nor does it occur because conditions are favorable for it. Awareness is what you are; thus we were given the classic nondual exhortation, "You are That." See what it is that you are presently overlooking. That is what nonduality is all about. It couldn't be simpler than that.


*****


You are spaciousness, not the thoughts, feelings, or bodily sensations that come up within it. If you take a careful look at this fact, you will be free.


*****


Having transcended pleasure and pain doesn't mean that one doesn't experience pleasure and pain. Such a person still enjoys pleasure and seeks quick relief from pain. But now, there is no defined person doing this. It is the clear and natural actions of a particular body/mind entity, whose fundamental nature is awareness itself.


*****


Even when picking up some of the old advaitic texts, my near-constant response, upon reading them, is "No, no, no," rather than "Yes, yes, yes!"


*****


When you say that you can't be free of your body and your thoughts, you are already free of your body and your thoughts. For if you have the ability to perceive something, that means that your innermost nature is above and beyond that which it is perceiving.


*****


Your spirit doesn't need awakening. It's not even "spirit." It truly is the sound of one hand clapping. And what is that sound? Right now, at this very moment, what is that sound?


*****


What you are seeking can't be sought. It is there and fully present before any attempts are made toward it. Allow your mind to be paused by this exquisite fact. Direct and poignant pointing can't help but stop your mental churning. You just don't take note of such timeless moments when they occur; nor do you see the fullness of them. And such moments take place many, many times during the day. So be alert for them, in a relaxed and easy manner. And perhaps you will come to see yourself in all of your sheerness and majesty.

-------

News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

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Q&A: No Message

Question: I'm delighted about your book, Rodney. I purchased a trio of copies--one for myself, and two others for holiday gifts to friends.

Rodney: Well, I believe three copies of a nondual title qualifies it as a bonafide bestseller. So thank you!

Q: I continue to read, ponder, and allow myself to be paused. That particular approach is so beautiful, really. It never feels like seeking; hence, there is no exasperation. It's rather like a day-to-day examination of the things and ideas that I previously thought "weighty" (I loved the way you used that word in your previous posting).

Rodney: Good points, all. But be wary of the "examination of things." That could continue without end. A thought is a thought is a thought. End of story. There is really nothing left to examine. Just see that you are giving undue significance to your thoughts and feelings. Yes, they are vital and practical, but they aren't who and what we are. We know that an idea and an emotion is there because there is a knowingness in which the thought or feeling arises. That knowingness is awareness.

Q: Yes, awareness is the examiner.

Rodney: Presence doesn't dissect or scrutinize. It perfectly beholds whatever is present. Whatever comes up after the initial witnessing is the so-called mind, with its varying assessments of the original thought, concept, or sentiment.

Q: And to see that this is happening is enough for a full understanding, correct?

Rodney: Yes, but it has to be a seeing that halts all mentation. It is the sudden and complete recognition of the permeation of awareness, which is the essence of your beingness. And it has always been present, of course--just overlooked. Our attention goes to a multitude of things throughout the day, and that is perfectly fine when we notice a car coming before we attempt to cross the road. But one could argue that it is not so good when we are, say, focused on our thoughts and breathing in an attempt to control them so that we can reach some so-called spiritual and fleeting state.

Q: But I will know it when I see, I suppose--this awareness.

Rodney: Generally, yes. You will know it when you see it. But if there is any question, just look at, say, your cup of tea or coffee on the table in front of you, or at some object in the distance. Then note if the spaciousness is still there. If it is, it is the real deal. If it is not, you will know that it was simply a passing experience. But don't get depressed! Be happy that you were able to quickly and accurately sort things out.

Q: My dear Rodney, do know you why I treasure your blog? It's because of such clear and "radiant" specifics as the aforesaid. No haziness or advaitic verbiage at all, and no making a mystery of things. I'm sure you understand what I'm attempting to convey.

Rodney: Completely.

Q: And the very same applies to your A Vastness All Around, of course. I experience the same "halting" as I did when I read Tony Parson's Invitation to Awaken. But with your book, the stillness seems to sit there for some time longer. I'm explaining this very, very badly. But again, I know you can sense my intent.

Rodney: Everyone responds differently to nondual books. I'm happy, of course, that Vastness moves you in the way that it does. Remain with the stillness that you are feeling, allowing yourself to fully see that the tranquility remains on its own, that there is no you having to do anything at all.

Q: I most certainly will...And I would like to write you again, if that's okay, as I continue to "sort things out." But for now, thank you so much for your message, Rodney.

Rodney: You're most welcome. But there is no message, really. It's just a responding from the source, a welling up from this particular body/mind entity. My perspective is the only originality here. For what I am pointing to is the very same thing to which all the other sages (from Buddha and Nisargadatta to Sailor Bob Adamson) have pointed, and that is Freedom itself.

-------

News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

-------

Pointers

What is it that presents itself at this very moment?

*****

Doubts arise largely because you are identifying with your body/mind, and not because this understanding is difficult to come by.


*****


When you love your partner as your Self, it is a love without jealousy, remorse, or competition. In a word, it is a love without bounds.


*****


In actuality, you can't realize Self because it is already realized.


*****


This understanding occurs only when you are liberated from the idea of liberation itself. And it isn't something that happens incrementally. It is a sudden and full-sweeping away of your imagined and acrimonious self.


*****


All states of consciousness appear and disappear within you. You are infinitely larger and grander than the most mesmerizing spiritual experience or the most awesome galactic phenomenon. Continue to give credence to this perspective of yourself, until you see it with unquestionable clarity.


*****

Note that your thoughts and feelings are perceived. It is never the other way around--with your thoughts and emotions perceiving you. See the direction from which this recognition is happening, and you will recognize your own ever-present Reality.


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Beauty is an aspect of awareness that profoundly pauses you. It can be a painting, a phrase, a setting, a person, a gesture, or a kiss. Allow yourself to be fully halted by any of these occurrences throughout your waking hours.


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Don't get caught up with names and labels. The actuality of awareness is totally beyond any debates as to whether it should be called God, Presence, Brahman, the Absolute, or Supreme Intelligence.


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In deep sleep, there are no objects for which awareness to recognize--no thoughts, dreams, or body-sense. Thus, we only know it as having been deep, restful, and marvelously peaceful. Consciousness emanates from awareness the next morning, and the body and the so-called mind are recognized. But awareness is forever there. It Does Not Move.


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A perception, when accorded a name and multiple memory recalls, is given "weight" and significance. Then it becomes an idea. We may then form opinions about this idea, and it soon becomes a form of thinking, a philosophy, a belief structure. But no matter how beautifully systematized the idea becomes, it is still just a piling on of thoughts in and about your fundamental reality.

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News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, and pointers can be ordered through Amazon (starting Nov 1st), your local bookstore (of whom we are big supporters), or directly from the publisher, Lulu Press.

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Q&A: A Clear Look

Question: Well, I have read pretty much everything related to nonduality, and still no understanding. But I'm not blaming you. :)

Rodney: Thanks. And besides, blaming is irrelevant in this neck of the woods.

Question: So what else can I do?

Rodney: See that there is nothing else to do, except to recognize that which is presently before you. Any stress, inordinate efforts, and looking away from yourself are the wrong ways to go about this.

Question: It sounds so easy, and yet--

Rodney: It's easier than you could ever fathom. And that's a significant part of the problem (or rather, the issue; for "problem" is too strong a word). Seekers conceive or formulate it to be this or that, and it isn't. Spiritual books, CDs, and DVDs often play into these idealizations, especially when they make this understanding out to be some esoteric, stupor-like form of Enlightenment. Worse still when they suffuse it with everything from visions and mystical powers to throbbing kundalini and ecstatic states of consciousness. But what is present before any of those things are present? A clear look at that question can resolve the issue quite easily.

Question: But I've looked and looked and looked. Please trust me on this.

Rodney: Oh, I do! And I'm fully empathetic to your questions and concerns. That's why I'm pointing to presence as clearly and as directly as I can. But you have to discover it for yourself and by yourself. But on that discovery, you will see that presence is everywhere and within everyone. So with that said, remain mindful of any pause or mental/conceptual cessation that you may have while exploring nonduality (as well as while making yourself a cup of tea or coffee, or simply taking out the trash). See that within that conceptual halting that there is a subtle yet explicit permeation of awareness that is nothing less than your fundamental nature. It appears not to be evident to you right now because your attention is going to everything else: Your thoughts, sensations, feelings of frustration, and arising concepts.

Question: So I should go back and just clear myself of all concepts.

Rodney: Where are you going to go, and who precisely is going to go there? I'm not being picky; for those are very real questions that need to be addressed (which can be done in a few seconds of honest seeing). And why do you need to "clear yourself" of thoughts and concepts? They are going to come up, so just let them. They're part of your natural body/mind functioning. And besides, there is no one there to even let them go! Their witnessing happens automatically. So where can this imagined "you" figure into any of this? It only comes up after the fact. For example, there is the thought "I am a good person." Then there is another thought of "But why can't I be more compassionate?" Because that last thought carries some emotional content, you assume that it defines you, i.e., that you indeed are non-compassionate and a person. This is the ego, which you can plainly see is just another thought. And thoughts arise in awareness, and you are That, not your thoughts, feelings, or physicality.

Question: Yeah, I'm starting to feel a little bit of the pausing that you were talking about.

Rodney: Allow it to happen naturally. Don't chase it or fret over it. After all, you are awareness proper, which manifests--in the body/mind entities--as a very definite presence of peace, spaciousness, and clarity that can never be fully described or articulated. And again, everything arises from That and is That. This is something that the mind can never grasp. It can only be discerned or recognized when the mind is not present, such as when there is a pause or directly after some potent insight.

Question: Thanks, Rodney. That all sounds solid. I'll definitely be checking back.

Rodney: Certainly. Meanwhile, all the best.

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News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, and pointers can be ordered through Amazon (starting Oct. 20th), your local bookstore (of whom we are big supporters), or directly from the publisher, Lulu Press.

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Pointers

Seekers overly-stress the notion that they must somehow "look within." But awareness is both within and without. It is everywhere at once, immaculate and beginningless.


*****


Awakening to your natural state is no "transformation of consciousness." Consciousness pretty much remains as it is, existing in its various states. If anything, it appears to function a bit better because you are clearer about who and what you actually are.


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If everyone on the planet were to become "enlightened" tomorrow, conflict would continue--though wars would eventually cease. For people would be getting a supreme kick out of each another's company, because they would be seeing unadorned presence squarely in one another's eyes.


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The "integration of the mind, spirit, and body" happens the moment you recognize that you are the awareness in which those things arise. It isn't any kind of "spiritual unfoldment," and it isn't anything requiring years of meditative endeavors or training. Alas, such suppositions are pure caprice.


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This understanding is not a temporary "experiencing" of God. Rather, it is an actual knowing that God's presence and magnificence has always been in full evidence.


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You don't require a vow or an oath to lead you to God or to Truth, which are the same thing. You are what you are. Thus the vow or oath would be something that's in addition to your natural state of being. It's just a piling-on of ideas and verbiage, which have nothing whatsoever to do with what you are at this very moment.


*****


Forget human and conscious evolutionary movements, and your need to join them and edify the world. Focus on what you are right here and now. Besides, how can you possibly help someone else if you don't have a clue about your very own Reality?


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Why are you striving to be "at one" with your breath? That isn't going to help you when it comes to discovering your natural state. And just who, precisely, is this entity who is doing the striving?


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Attempting to get rid of the ego is a spiritual and meditative trap. Why? There are a trio of reasons: 1) The ego is not a concrete, ever-present entity; 2) you are trying to use an imaged person to destroy an imaged thing; and 3) you are approaching the problem from a conceptual or idealistic level, rather than from Reality. Clueless teachers have fostered the myth that the ego (which is nothing but a temporary thought or feeling) can and does need to be annihilated.


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News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, and pointers can be ordered through Amazon (starting Oct. 5th), your local bookstore (of whom we are big supporters), or directly from the publisher, Lulu Press.

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Q&A:I Feel It in My Heart

Question: I just finished the audio book Perfect Brilliant Stillness, by David Carse and read by Terrance Stamp. I thoroughly enjoyed this work because Carse was so brutally honest about there not being a separate individual at all and that what we are is just presence, awareness.

Rodney: Yes, I purchased that title years back. It's definitely a keeper, and I still have it somewhere on my bookshelf. I haven't heard the audio version. However, Terence Stamp appears to have been the perfect reader; for his temperament seems fully in sync with Carse's.

Question: He certainly provides no new information, but I found his whole story an adventure, and I liked how he just went back to carpentry and sort of just disappeared.

Rodney: There is really no new information when it comes to nonduality. What is original, though, is the perspective of the person who comes to this understanding. He or she then speaks and writes about it (if the person is inclined to do so) in his own way, which will no doubt resonate with certain seekers.

Question: Yeah, I guess what I'm saying is that it is a very genuine story. It rekindles a hope (there is that nasty "future" again) that I will see this non-existent me that is so obviously right in front of me, and will then wonder how I ever missed it.

Rodney: Oh, but you do exist! You are Self itself. Even thoughts and emotions are certainly there. But what is not present is a sustained, individual you that is different from and outside of awareness. That fictitious entity is maintained largely through memory and our re-occurring body-sense.

Q: I have to tell you, Rodney, I feel like all of this is like some sort of "Tractor Beam" slowly pulling at me, and I can't seem to break free. I feel it in my heart, and it brings me to tears sometimes. I have read so many nondual books and looked at so many nondual DVDs. I have been at this for a couple of years now, maybe three. Sometimes I get so frustrated that I just pack all the books and DVDs up and throw them in a closet and say, "That's it, I've had enough, I can't do this anymore!"

Rodney: And that's okay, too. Nondual books and DVDs (at least those that are replete with clear pointing) aren't really to blame. All too often seekers read and watch them strictly from a conceptual or even mythical standpoint. So there will indeed be frustration because they will never see that to which the writers or teachers are pointing, which is their own true self. The machinations of thought and memory have to briefly stop or be paused. But this has to happen naturally. It can't be done through meditation or concentration. Then there is a simple seeing of what has always been radiantly present.

Q: And you know what else frustrates me? All those turbulent years in Christianity, being conditioned to pray to God for help whenever I felt helpless or desperate. Supposedly, this was a God who listened to us because he loved us. Now it turns out that this God is within us, and not in Heaven some where. Those were just years wasted.

Rodney: And now it's over. Count your blessings that you have seen the Light, so to speak--that you now have this innate feeling of who and what God really must be.

Q: But it is soooooo frustrating that something that is so simple and right in front of me is so elusive. And you can't talk about this to people, OMG, they think you are nuts when you suggest that all this is an illusion, an "apparent" body/mind/life.

Rodney: See the other perspective, though, which--I can assure you--is the correct one. And that is that it is such an incredible thing that presence is "so simple and right in front of me." That sterling fact, in itself, is enough to make one want to shout Emaho! (that Tibetan/Dzogchen exclamation meaning Yes! Marvelous! Far out! Amazing!). While your understanding may not yet be clear, you intuit that it is one of the easiest things in the world to come to. Be thankful for this fact, that presence isn't something that you have to attain or work toward. It is what you are at this very moment. Allow yourself to be paused by the following: What is it, right now, that is not a thought, an emotion, or a body sensation? What is it, right now, that is subtle, beginningless, and most definitely present? Ponder this, keep it in your heart, and you will see for yourself that you have always been the answer.

Q: Thanks for listening, my friend. Sorry this went on so long. I know you must get boat loads of email. I really appreciate your blog for its clarity and truth. Please keep it up.

Rodney: You're most welcome.


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Here is an interview that I recently did for the new online publication, Nonduality Magazine: http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/nonduality_magazine_volume_1.contents.htm


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